Biography of Abraham Wheelocke

Abraham Wheelocke, Wheelock, Whelocke, Whelock, or Wheloc was an English linguist and librarian. He was the first to publish, in England, Bede’s ‘Ecclesiastical History’ in its original Latin text opposite the Old English version. He was the first person to attempt printing the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle fragments. He was the first Adams Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

1593 – He is born in Whitchurch, Shropshire.

1614 – He graduates with a BA from Trinity College, Cambridge.

1618 – He graduates with an MA from Trinity College, Cambridge.

1619 – He contributes a Latin poem to a volume of elegies (‘Lachrymæ Cantabrigienses,’ p. 70).

1619 – He becomes Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.

1622-1642 – He is minister of St. Sepulchre’s Cambridge.

1625 – He contributes Latin verses to the ‘Epithalamium Caroli et Henriettæ Mariæ’.

1625 – He graduates with a BD from Clare College.

1629 – He is made librarian of the “Public Library” (Cambridge University Library), he is also made Reader in Anglo-Saxon.

1631 – He contributes Latin verses to the ‘Genethliacum Illustrissimorum Principum, Caroli et Mariæ’.

1632 – He marries Clemence Goad.

1632 – He oversees the transfer of Thomas van Erpe’s collection to Cambridge University Library after George Villiers purchases it. This collection contained the first book which was added to the Cambridge University Library written in Chinese.

1633 – He contributes Greek verses to ‘Rex Redux’ and ‘Ducis Eboracensis Fasciæ’.

1637 – He has verse prefixed to Duport’s work.

1641 – He contributes Greek verses to ‘Irenodia Cantabrigiensis’.

1643-1644 – He produces the editio princeps of Bede’s Old English Ecclesiastical History of the English People and also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He is the first to publish in England Bede’s Ecclesiastical History in its original Latin text opposite the Old English version.

1652 – He works on a Persian version of the Gospels from several manuscripts, this gets published posthumously in 1657.

1653 – He dies in London.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

References:

[1] – https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZLycwexHCYC&pg=PA443&lpg=PA443&dq=abraham+wheelocke+1593-1653+biography&source=bl&ots=rCpN6hNWyE&sig=ACfU3U35zh-GY6Z6R5Csk-fcKdAXrbTSog&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij6Me8w6rhAhVEiqwKHeMtBLwQ6AEwCHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=abraham%20wheelocke%201593-1653%20biography&f=false

[2] – http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-29191

[3] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Wheelocke

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~